Jon Landau Talks Avatar 2 Status & Avatar DVD/Blu-ray

Avatar co-producer Jon Landau (who also produced Cameron’s other big hit, Titanic) talked recently with Coming Soon about Avatar 2 and revealed some information about the future special edition Blu-Ray releases of Avatar as well.

Now, let’s be honest — at this point Avatar has grossed over $2.7 billion in theaters worldwide, so it’s silly for anyone connected to the film to pretend that 20th Century Fox executives aren’t going to harangue them night and day to make certain a sequel happens.

Landau, however, insists for now that most of the pressure the Avatar filmmakers are under is self-imposed which, to be fair, sounds reasonable. After all, they are the ones who will be ultimately responsible for Avatar 2 being as good, better, or worse than the original.

On the subject of sequels and James Cameron, Landau did raise a good point:

“We’ve always said that if the public wanted a sequel that we would do a sequel. That having been said, in my opinion, [James Cameron] has done two sequels in his career, and both times, he has at least equaled if not surpassed the original movie. We’re only going to do it when we have a piece of material, a script, that we believe will be at least as entertaining and unique as the first movie was.”

That’s not just hubris on Landau’s part, either– both Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (the two sequels that Cameron has helmed) are highly regarded by sci-fi fans and considered by a lot of moviegoers to be superior to their predecessors.

Additionally, Landau also pointed out that the next trip to Pandora won’t be nearly as complex or expensive (recall that Avatar‘s been rumored to have cost upwards of $387 million to make):

“We figured out how to do it, and our goal in the next one is to do it more cost-effectively and more time-efficiently, and we have kept on a team of our technical staff who is working right now on Gen 2 of what we did, but with all the experience that we’ve had. We kept them on, and they’re working for us right now.”

Unlike Jack & Rose, Jake & Neytiri's love will go on and in 3D no less.

While we wait for pre-production work to officially begin on Avatar 2, there’s the upcoming Earth Day (April 22nd) DVD/Blu-Ray release of Avatar to anticipate as well.

On that subject, Landau revealed that a four-disc ultimate edition Avatar Blu-Ray is in the works and will be released this November. It will include an intricate two-hour documentary on the making of Avatar and additional cut scenes from the film that deal with the Na’vi school run by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and more about the Avatar training program that Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) went through.

Those concerned about purchasing the regular DVD/Blu-Ray version of Avatar (which will lack these special features), need not worry as they can access them via “The Avatar Program,” a setup that allows those who have purchased a copy of the film to access additional bonus features at Avatarmovie.com.

So yeah – lots to keep us all entertained while we wait for James Cameron to officially announce that’s he getting to work on that screenplay for Avatar 2.